The French president praised Washington for seeking peace, just not this peace.
PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron pushed back Tuesday against the terms of a peace plan Washington wants to negotiate with Ukraine, calling on Europeans to show strength and choose alone on the use of Russian frozen assets.
In an interview on French radio, Macron said “Europeans must decide” on the use of immobilized Russian state assets, most of which are held in Belgium.
A 28-point peace plan proposed by the United States last week includes a proposal to use those assets for American-led reconstruction efforts in Ukraine once a truce is agreed. The suggestion risks derailing an effort from Europeans to mobilize €140 billion of those assets to fund the war effort in Ukraine.
“Europeans are the only ones – because it’s in the [U.S.] plan – who can decide on what we’ll do with the Russian frozen assets that are held by Europeans,” Macron said on French radio station RTL.
While the French president praised Washington for adopting “an approach that goes in the right direction,” he said the plan, which has been seen in Europe as reflecting mostly Russian interests, contains “elements that need improving.”
“We want peace,” he said, but not “a capitulation.”
Instead, Macron called on Europeans not to show “signs of weakness” that would embolden Russia in “its strategic confrontation” with Europe.
The original ceasefire proposal from the United States triggered alarm in European capitals because it would force Kyiv to give up swathes of land to Moscow, abandon hope of ever joining NATO, and cut the size of its army to 600,000 troops from nearly 1 million. But talks in Geneva involving the U.S., Ukraine and Europeans, kindled hope in Europe that U.S. President Donald Trump might listen to their concerns.
“The whole debate in Geneva these last few days has been to [argue] against limiting the Ukrainian forces,” said Macron. “We mustn’t impose any limit, the first security guarantee for Ukrainians and for us, it’s this robust army,” he said.
On Tuesday, Macron will host a video call of the “coalition of the willing,” a group of countries supporting Ukraine, to discuss security guarantees for Ukraine.